"This is so thorough that I'd be amazed if anyone can point to a V12 with car applications that isn't here. While the road cars are all here, competition cars outweigh them, all illuminated by hundreds of drawings and photos, including many one-offs."

Motor Sport

"The text is filled with observations and quotations that bring history into focus. Business and technology are equally well served. This is a book to which the automotive historian will frequently return to enjoy its intellectual and visual delights. It takes its place on our shelves next to the great works of Pomeroy and Borgeson."

SAH Journal

"It is a delight to browse through the photos and engineering diagrams and marvel at the ingenuity of the designers of these magnificent powerplants. Author Ludvigsen, who has been a motoring/motorsport historian for more than 50 years, admits that he has never owned a car with a V12 engine but his book suggests that he has a true passion for them."

Motorsport News

"A remarkable study which is also readable and superb value"

Classic & Sports Car

"To enthusiasts of engines per se, the V12 remains one of the great configurations of all time. This amazing range of engines is described in detail. Accompanied by a wealth of technical drawings, cutaways and detail photographs, this exhaustive survey of some of the most charismatic power units of all time is something of a tour de force. Compulsive reading for all students of engine design."

Speed Scene

"Typically authoritative and comprehensive examination by Ludvigsen"

Octane

Karl Ludvigsen

In addition to his motor industry activities as an executive (with GM, Fiat and Ford) and head of a consulting company, Karl Ludvigsen has been active for over 50 years as an author and historian. As an author, co-author or editor he has some four dozen books to his credit. Needless to say, they are all about cars and the motor industry, Karl's life-long passion.